Rate Your Wife!

Jen recently came across something very disturbing yet oh-so-fun on the psychology/neuroscience blog Mind Hacks. It's a wife rating scale from the 1930's. That's right, I said wife rating, as in, is your wife up to snuff with the standards of the day.

It reminded me of that heinous "How To Be a Good Wife" passage from the high school home economics textbooks of the 50's. ("Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing and pleasant voice.")

Of course we had to take the assessment. First you have to score your wife on "demerits" -- Is she slow in coming to bed? Does she fail to darn socks regularly? -- and then on "merits" -- Does she have meals ready on time? Can she play a musical instrument?

A score between 0-24 indicates that, as wives go, yours is "very poor (failures)". I scored a 6. Guess what Jen scored.

-16.

Off the charts, abysmal failure. Worst wife ever.

Amusingly enough, all of the shortcomings of a 1930's housewife are characteristically ADD. Slow in coming to bed, often late for appointments, doesn't have meals ready on time, doesn't keep the house tidy. It makes you wonder how women with ADD managed to cope back then. Maybe they were the suffragists and first-wave feminists. Jen certainly would have been. And I would have been peering out of my perfectly pressed lace curtains, wishing I was marching with her.

 

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Comments

[Tara McGillicuddy]

Now, I know why John was talking about my rating as a wife and saying I would be getting a bad score!

[Kali]

A wife rating scale? I really think there is room to revive this scale for men. I love the picture you posted...thank God its not our era.